MassChallenge – Drydock Avenue

Expanded accelerator space for startups and their troops

Having completed a first-of-its-kind residency with MassChallenge to iteratively design its original Boston headquarters, we were eager to translate our learnings to a new space at the Innovation & Design Building. However, this required us to apply a new lens to our thinking. Originally constructed in 1919 as a depot for the U.S. Army, the Innovation & Design Building includes wide, open floorplans crisscrossed by a web of concrete columns. With no predictable path through the space as there was at Marina Park, we adapted our design by introducing a landscape of bright ‘rocks’ to help form neighborhood zones. We also adapted our environmental graphics strategy so that brand elements can be viewed from farther away and are not dependent on a specific sequence. The end result is a space that is true to the brand experience pioneered at MassChallenge’s original location, and — like the entrepreneurs it supports — has learned to adjust to life in freeform.